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What did you do on your P1 Volvo today? Topic is solved

Help, Advice, Owners' Discussion and DIY Tutorials devoted to the second generation C70, S40 and V50 Volvos -- awkwardly model year 2004 ½ onwards -- plus where to go for advice and discussion on Volvo's sporty C30 Coupe powered by Volvo's ubiquitous inline 5-cylinder power plant.
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scot850
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Re: What did you do on your P1 Volvo today?

Post by scot850 »

Well, took the 07 C30 T5 Auto up to one of the local Volvo dealers. I think they cringe when I take a car to them as they know it will be a doozie! They are the newer dealership, and have less experienced mechanics on Volvo's but I know the manager as he used to have to deal with our infamous 00 V70R! He is a senior Volvo tech of many years.

It went in for an hours diagnostic (Agreed and signed for that and no more cost). They got their most experienced diagnostic mechanic on it and naturally the car ran perfectly all the way there and has not missed a beat since they have had it. Only 2 things I can think of:

1) I pulled and checked the fuses and relays to make sure I had not used too much De-Ox-ID on them. Specifically checking the ECM/CEM/fuel and ignition areas.
2) I had put more fuel into the car as it was running low. It did start the 'hunting' on the rev's after that when I got home.

The only other possibility is it is cooler today. It is only around 16-18C today, where when I was driving it it was in the mid 20'sC.

Last I heard, the service manager had rolled his sleeves up and was pitching in to help. I know he doesn't like to be beat, part of the reason I took it there......... :D

They asked to keep the car for longer as they wanted to check it further. :o :lol:

Their techs will at least get a chance to learn and stretch themselves further. All I need is for them to be able to read live data as my Vida system won't.

Neil.
2006 V70 2.5T AWD Polestar tune
2000 V70 R - still being an endless PITA
2006 XC70 - Our son now has this and still parked in our garage
2003 Toyota 4Runner V8 Limited
2015 Kia Sportage EX-L - Sold
1993 850 GLT -Sold
1998 V70 XC - Sold
1997 Volvo 850 SE NA - Went to niece in California - Sold
2000 V70 SE NA - Sold

scot850
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Post by scot850 »

Helped my young friend with his 06 V50 T5 AWD manual a couple of days ago. He drives the car really hard so it needs fairly frequent attention as it is now nearing 200,000 miles. Lates issues were:

1) Leaking thermostat plastic housing. I believe it was the rear seal between the housing and the block failing. The part was a good old Pro-Parts Sweden unit that he had replaced the thermostat in about a year ago. Due to affordability he bought a unit off Rock Auto (SMP?).
2) The PCV/oil filter housing was leaking. Again various leaky seals between the unit and the block. Again he had replaced the valve on the top of the unit about a year ago with an aftermarket part. There was no issue with the part that was fitted but the pcv was causing issues. Again he bought a whole new housing with new seals.
3) Rear shock (recently replaced) was clunking.

Always love working on P1 turbos. Actually that is a lie! :o

Having to remove the air intake to access anything below it is a pain requiring disconnecting the engine mounts on the RHS by the timing belt and then moving the engine rearward to give enough room to remove the air box.

Once that was out the way, I let him get on with it. He called me over as one of the bolts he was refitting for the new thermostat housing had snapped off. He assured me he was not cranking on it as it is only a small diameter. Removing the housing the bolt was snapped off level with the surface. Fortunately is was loose enough I was able to turn it enough to remove it using a pick. Problem was although I have many Volvo bolts, Volvo in their infinite wisdom decided to use M7 bolts and in this case, 70mm long. It was 5pm in the evening. Why the heck did they use a 'non-standard' bolt size? They did the same with the PCV housing.

He needs the car so I found a long M8 bolt, used my bench grinder to grind it down slightly and then turn a M7 x 1.0 thread on it. Fortunately I have a tap and die set with the correct die. Also, luckily the holes in the thermostat housing accept a M8 bolt diameter bolt. That has at least sorted that issue for now!

Oil filter/PCV housing went back on slowly as it is a pain to access. Note: Both units have M7 bolts and torque it 17NM.

He then removed the new rear shock recently fitted and the countersunk upper nut for the strut into the mount was loose. You need a special tool ($90) to tighten this. I managed to do this with what I call a ring-wrench and a pair of vice-grips holding the shaft at the top.
The bolt for the lower mount had corroded threads full of crap. Out with the thread set again and chased the threads so clean them up.

With everything refitted I was rady to call it a night when he mentioned one of the 3 top bolts for the RHS front strut was loose. The thread was corroded and the bolt thread was damaged. This time I could not fix the M8 threads in the strut top as the threads were rusted out. I had to drill and tap it out to M10 x 1.5 thread and then thread a M10 bolt all the way down to the head as they use the whole length.

Finally done at 8.30pm! Time for beer!

Neil.
2006 V70 2.5T AWD Polestar tune
2000 V70 R - still being an endless PITA
2006 XC70 - Our son now has this and still parked in our garage
2003 Toyota 4Runner V8 Limited
2015 Kia Sportage EX-L - Sold
1993 850 GLT -Sold
1998 V70 XC - Sold
1997 Volvo 850 SE NA - Went to niece in California - Sold
2000 V70 SE NA - Sold

howdimissu
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Post by howdimissu »

Just ordered an AEM X-Series wideband upstream kit with a LSU Bosch4.9 sensor. Find out how rich I am truly running from needing a de-cat, and downstream o2 sensor removal in a much-needed tune. I just wanted to set my guy with a proper and safe system before getting the Stage 2+ tune. :) It was fun reading all of y'alls comments about what you did on your car today! :) Crack open some brews for your hard work and melt into the couch haha

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smacknab
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Post by smacknab »

Just realized I've been posting everything in the p80 thread I used to use but, I've been through a saga with a my new to me v50 with a bad motor.

V50 reassembled and made it back in the driveway, I'll pull it back into my shop this weekend since it has a few lingering issues to button up.

Big job generally though so pretty proud of it starting up first try- engine swap with a 100k motor from Erie Volvo. I did a full timing kit including all front and rear seals, serpentine tensioners, pcv system, coolant system refresh and motor mounts. Transmission refresh with flywheel+clutch+pressure plate, all seals including on the angle gear, AWD collar sleeve (PITA!), drain/fill/filter for rear haldex and dif.


Only hit a few roadblocks having to drill out some snapped bolts on the belly of the car as well as grind down and weld new captive nuts for one of the rear driveshaft brackets. Plus I bent the power steering line dropping the engine back in but thankfully fcp had it 50% off and shipped it to my house in 1 day on new years eve.

I've learned that working on an AWD turbo P1 vs my old fwd NA P80 i should expect everything to take 2-3x longer because of tight packaging and added complexity.
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07 V50 T5 AWD M66 ~146k miles
87 Ford Ranger 2wd Manual - 2.3 Thunderbird/SVO Turbo swap project

99 s70 NA Manual - ~270k miles - Died when a friend shot it up a highway embankment

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smacknab
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Post by smacknab »

When I bought the car both power seats didn't work, but the heated seats did. All fuses under dash and in the engine bay were fine but I found a swedespeed post from a guy talking about a bad splice under the drivers seat. It was very wet under the floor foam which turned a 3-1 splice into dust. Fixed the splice and got my power seats back so I'm not driving with my head hitting the roof.

Also replaced the trunk struts.

Fixing the sunroof drains and drying out the sound deading is next on my list.
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07 V50 T5 AWD M66 ~146k miles
87 Ford Ranger 2wd Manual - 2.3 Thunderbird/SVO Turbo swap project

99 s70 NA Manual - ~270k miles - Died when a friend shot it up a highway embankment

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smacknab
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Post by smacknab »

-Mostly fixed my sunroof drains today.

Followed the fcp blog post for the front drains and swapped the hoses with 3/8 id hose from home depot. I then tested the drain tray and realized neither of my rear drain lines were working either.

I was able to access the bottom of the rear hoses by pulling the padded bolster and the lower c-pillar trim. There the drain hose runs into what looks like a pass-through hose/grommet combo that goes through the floors. Snaked the lines and hit them with compressed air. Both of the hose ends were stiff and not well seated in the grommets, so for now I just wrapped the edges in electrical tape and pushed them back in. I'll have to go back for a more complete repair eventually, but all 4 drains are at least working now.

Soon I'll pull the full carpet to fully dry the floor and rust treat the floor pan.


-Also, replaced the old URO coolant reservoir and cap with new Volvo units. Since I bought it with a blown engine (I believe warped from overheating) and reading about coolant loss issues in P1s I decided not to take chances. At this point I belive the only part of the cooling system I haven't replaced or upgraded are the heater core+lines and the turbo lines.
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07 V50 T5 AWD M66 ~146k miles
87 Ford Ranger 2wd Manual - 2.3 Thunderbird/SVO Turbo swap project

99 s70 NA Manual - ~270k miles - Died when a friend shot it up a highway embankment

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smacknab
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Post by smacknab »

I realized my puddle lights weren't working and TLDR traced it to another corroded CANbus multi-wire splice in the drivers footwell. I first pulled the door card checked the wiring through the module, then checked the ground posts at the bottom of the A-pillar.

Adtee finding the corroded splice I figured it's best not to put it off, so I pulled the carpets and cleaned the floor pans. Tried to compress/wetvac the water out of the open cell insulation the best I could, but I realized I'd never be able to get it fully dry. I ended up stealing the dehumidifier from my house and closing it in the car with the mats face up. Hoping they'll be dry tomorrow.

--If anyone is curious how I got here, I noticed the puddle lights weren't working when pressing the yellow dot button, but the rest of the lights were activating (which made me figure is not a key fob or syncing issue). I first replaced the bulbs but nothing changed, at that point I looked online for wiring diagrams. The puddle lights seem to have their wiring explained under 'follow me home' lighting in the diagrams I found (from VolvoDiag). If I understand those CANbus diagrams correctly, both the heated mirrors and puddle lights share 'A3' and 'A12'. Those wires are Gray-red and Blue-red, respectively. The gray-red wires were corroded at the splice. I didn't explicitly test if the heated mirrors were working but I remember wondering if they were infact heated, as they weren't defrosting like my old s70. Either way, the wires are now properly spliced, double layer heat shrunk, wrapped, and taped. I'll update if the problem isnt fixed.
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07 V50 T5 AWD M66 ~146k miles
87 Ford Ranger 2wd Manual - 2.3 Thunderbird/SVO Turbo swap project

99 s70 NA Manual - ~270k miles - Died when a friend shot it up a highway embankment

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abscate
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Post by abscate »

You have done “ very good work”

Finding root cause of water intrusion from drains will let you fix a lot of stuff. Maybe plan on another dry week in the summer to hit the dehumifier hard for 5 days with the carpets up. I took a week in April to dry out my t5 of coolant in 2013
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smacknab
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Post by smacknab »

abscate wrote: 12 Jan 2026, 04:44 You have done “ very good work”

Finding root cause of water intrusion from drains will let you fix a lot of stuff. Maybe plan on another dry week in the summer to hit the dehumifier hard for 5 days with the carpets up. I took a week in April to dry out my t5 of coolant in 2013
Thanks Steve! Morning shop update is the foam is probably 98% dry, just a bit of moisture left at the bottom of one of the mats, so gonna let it run for the rest of the day.

I think I solved the water intrusion issue when I did the sunroof drains but I'll take another look at the rear drain grommets. I was reading that p1s also have windscreen issues too? I definitely have some weird caulking on the windshield and was planning to reseal it eventually anyway, but I'll take a look for leaks there too.
07 V50 T5 AWD M66 ~146k miles
87 Ford Ranger 2wd Manual - 2.3 Thunderbird/SVO Turbo swap project

99 s70 NA Manual - ~270k miles - Died when a friend shot it up a highway embankment

scot850
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Post by scot850 »

Yes, unfortunately P1 car's are particularly prone to this Volvo stupidity. Why anyone thought 2 piece drain tubes were a good idea is another one of those, " what were they thinking, if at all", when they designed those.

My mechanic buddy has 2 P2 C30's one of which suffers from the front and rear leaking drains. The power seats are totally seized. That is a project he has up his sleeve for me to swap the good leather tops onto a set of those crappy seat covers that like to split to get one good set of working seats. Then there is just the rest of the interior to refit and then the engine to rebuild for the failed big end bearings.

So what do you do when you have one car like that, a 2nd Polestar version with a lightly bent rear bumper and quarter? Yes you go buy another cheap 2012 T5 auto with possible bad trans....... :lol: :lol:

We are going to view the car tomorrow. At $1400 CDN and 165k miles it would be rude not to!

Neil.
2006 V70 2.5T AWD Polestar tune
2000 V70 R - still being an endless PITA
2006 XC70 - Our son now has this and still parked in our garage
2003 Toyota 4Runner V8 Limited
2015 Kia Sportage EX-L - Sold
1993 850 GLT -Sold
1998 V70 XC - Sold
1997 Volvo 850 SE NA - Went to niece in California - Sold
2000 V70 SE NA - Sold

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